Great Gifts for Grandma

Have you ever thought about what makes a great gift? For me, it can be summed up in 3 words, which all begin with the letter F. You are probably familiar with the first two. You hear the words tossed around often when it comes to design: Form and function. Form has to do with the aesthetic appeal of the item (this is more important to some of us than others). Function is also important to me, though. If I have something beautiful but have no where to put it or nothing to do with it, it’s kind of a waste.

But the 3rd F is what makes a give a homerun gift. It is for Feeling (or if you aren’t into my alliteration, you can call it sentiment). If the gift recalls a memory, or is the fulfillment of a dream or creates some sort of special feeling.

This is why I love nice-quality photo gifts–especially when it comes to the Grandparents! They love getting those hand-drawn cards and pictures, but can only collect so much kid art-work with out another function. So I’m always on the look out for photo gifts that are useful and have great design. Here’s what I did this year!

…(AND if you are my Mother-in-law, you need to stop reading, now.)

….Seriously.

Ok.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Minted. They offer beautifully designed and printed wedding invitations and holiday cards. But they also have a collection of gifts that are perfect for the people who love your family and might like to look at photos of them.

I chose the Gallery Grand Calendar because of its clean and beautiful design, and also because it didn’t have a million different options for customization and clip art, etc. I know that sounds strange for me because I like to do thing my own way, but I often loose hours sorting through things to put together the perfect design, but I knew this design was strong enough to look great with any season, and would really highlight my photos! I put a lot of effort into my photography, so it is nice to showcase the photos this way. Here are a few screen shots of my calendar (I’d show you the real thing, but I just put in the order).

There are actually a few different layout options but I did the 3 photo layout the most, because I had a ton of pictures I wanted to include. You can also change the color of the month title (4 options to chose from) and enter special dates on the calendar.

They are pretty, right? Maybe you want to forget about the grandparents and get one for your own family. My kids LOVE to see pictures of themselves and our family–especially when they aren’t just on my computer!